MLA Formatting Guide – EWHS English Department
Font: Times New Roman
Font Size: 12 pt
Spacing: Double-space, (2.0), including the heading on the left.
* Please note: with the newer version of Word, you need to actually go in and adjust the spacing
settings to have actual double-spacing.
 Instructions:
o Under the Spacing menu, go to “Line Spacing Options.”
o Ensure that the following are true:
 Under “Spacing,” both “Before” and “After” should be “0pt.”
 “Line Spacing” should be “Double”
 “At” space (next to “Line Spacing”) should be blank.
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Only ONE space (press “Return” or “Enter” only once,) between Heading and Title, between
Title and first paragraph, and between paragraphs
Indent once at beginning of each new paragraph
Page margins should be 1” wide (adjust this in “Page Layout”)
Heading:
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Left alignment
Include (in this order, each on its own line): Name, Teacher Name, Course Title followed by
class period (English 10H, p6) Date Due
Page Numbers:
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Right alignment with last name and page number—example: Branom2
Instructions:
o Under the “Insert” tab select “Page Number” then “Top of Page” and “Plain Number
3”
o Once the Header opens, the cursor will be in front of the page number
o Type your last name
o Then “Close Header and Footer”
o The page numbers will update per page with your last name automatically
Paper Title: FOR BRANOM, I DON’T WANT A TITLE.
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Centered
No bolded, underlined, or italicized titles (unless the title of a work is in your title, see
“Titles,” below)
You should press “Return” or “Enter” only once after your Header and once to begin your
first paragraph
Titles:
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Novels, novellas, plays, album titles, periodicals (magazines, newspapers,) and movies –
italics
Short stories, poems, songs, articles, short plays, short movies – “in quotation marks”
Book titles are underlined
In-text Citations:
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Print Sources
o The author's last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or
paraphrase is taken must appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear
on your Works Cited page.
o Author's name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the
quotation or paraphrase, but page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses,
not in the text of the sentence.
o Examples:
 Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a “spontaneous
overflow of powerful feelings” (263).
 Romantic poetry is characterized by the “spontaneous overflow of powerful
feelings” (Wordsworth 263).
 Wordsworth extensively explored the role of emotion in the creative process
(263).
o After the first in-text citation, consecutive subsequent citations by the same author do
not need to include the last name within the parenthetical quotation but rather just a
page number.
 If multiple sources are being used, author last name should be included in the
parenthetical citation each time the discussed source switches
 See Appendix A for example
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Lines from Poetry and Lyrics
o In-text citations appear in much the same manner as other print sources, with the
author’s last name but instead of page number(s) in parentheses, cite the line
number(s) following the quotation
o To maintain or demonstrate line breaks when quoting poems or lyrics of less than
four lines, put a slash (/) between the lines to mark the line break:
 Example:
 In “The Poem,” when William Carlos Williams writes, “It's all in / the
sound” (1-2), he is arguing for the lyrical quality of words.
o In poetic or musical quotes four lines or longer, block quote by indenting ten spaces
from the left on each side of your document. Then reproduce the poem as accurately
as possible.
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Block Quotes
o Long quotes (four or more lines) must be set off in “block quotes” to separate them
from the rest of your text.
 It should be noted that there is rarely a need for quotes longer than four
lines, even at the collegiate level. Special care should be taken to ensure
that all quoted text is absolutely essential to the support and proof of a
thesis statement.
o See Appendix B for example.
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Internet Sources
o Include in the text the first item that appears in the Work Cited entry that corresponds
to the citation (e.g. author name, article name, website name, film name).
o Do not give paragraph numbers or page numbers
o Do not include URLs in-text unless the reader cannot access the correct site
without the entire URL; provide partial URLs such as when the name of the site
includes, for example, a domain name, like CNN.com, or Forbes.com, as opposed to
writing out http://www.cnn.com or http://www.forbes.com.
o Example:
 In the medical field women are “poised to outnumber their male colleagues by
2017” (Lemay).
 The above in-text citation would correspond to the full citation below,
which should then appear on the Works Cited page:
o Lemay, Megan S. “Thanks for the Compliment, But I'm Not a
Nurse.” The XX Factor. Slate Magazine, 20 Sept. 2013. Web.
20 Sept. 2013.
Works Cited Page:
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Should appear at the end of each written paper
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Should be a separate page at the end of your paper with the same one-inch margins and Last
Name / Page number header
Title page “Works Cited Page” (center alignment)
Continue to double-space
Do not add an extra space between citations if you are citing more than one work; instead,
indent the second and subsequent lines of any citation
Include MLA citations of works used. These are different for each type of work, but some
excellent resources are:
o Purdue Online Writing Lab (see options menu on left for different types of texts)
 http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/06/
o Easybib.com
See Appendix C for example Works Cited page
Appendix A: Author Last Name in Parenthetical Citations
Though the poems by both authors strongly reflect sentiments from the Harlem Renaissance, the
speaker’s tone within “Mother to Son” is marked by pessimism and melancholia – she speaks of solitude
and places where there “ain’t been no light” (Hughes 13). The speaker’s life is riddled with difficulties –
“splinters,” “tacks,” and the ceaseless need to fight through a life that has clearly left its speaker
hardened and disillusioned (4, 3). In contrast, the triumphant “Still I Rise” repeats over and over again
that despite being “trod[den]” in the “dirt” and “kill[ed]” with “hatefulness,” its speaker will overcome
and succeed (Angelou 3, 23). While the poems seem to suggest that the Harlem Renaissance did not
provide hope and light to all, perhaps instead to only a select few, by examining each poem more closely
one notes that they both reach a center that is strikingly similar, just approached from opposite ends of
the spectrum. Initially defeated as she sound, a closer reading reveals that in reality hope remains for the
jaded mother in the former poem, who encourages her son to not “turn back” because she, after all this
time, is “still climbin’” (Hughes 14, 19).
Appendix B: Blocked Quotes
As he grew older and more widely read, Dreiser developed ideas about Mechanism, Realism, and
Naturalism. He then had to struggle with oppositions between his former ideals and hi current beliefs.
Dreiser did this by taking the Romantic themes and ideals he grew up with and carving a place in the
city for them:
The city was forming Dreiser, acting as a catalyst and bringing out
elements dormant in his personality – just as it did with so many of
Dreiser’s characters. He came to the city in pursuit of his destiny – a self
that was waiting to be born. Dreiser was a modern day romantic, a
wanderer in search of the experience or situation by which he could best
realize his nature, his very essence (Lehan 29).
Sister Carrie, Dreiser’s first successful novel, is a novel that personifies the struggle between the
Romantic and the Naturalist, as Dreiser utilizes Romantic imagery and language even as he creates his
characters from a Naturalist’s view of existence.
Two conflicting ideologies warred within the young Dreiser. The pull of pastoralism, with its
inherent hope and idealism…
Appendix C: Works Cited Page
Works Cited
Lemay, Megan S. “Thanks for the Compliment, But I'm Not a Nurse.” The XX Factor. Slate Magazine,
20 Sept. 2013. Web. 20 Sept. 2013.
“MLA Style.” The Purdue OWL: MLA Style. Purdue University, 1995. Web. 20 Sept. 2013.
Hughes, Langston. “Mother to Son” The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Ed. Henry
Louis Gates, Nellie Y. McKay, William L. Andrews, and Houston A. Baker, Jr. New York:
W.W. Norton &, 2004. 100-01. Print.
Angelou, Maya. “Still I Rise” The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Ed. Henry
Louis Gates, Nellie Y. McKay, William L. Andrews, and Houston A. Baker, Jr. New York:
W.W. Norton &, 2004. 743-744. Print.